Chapter 60: The King’s Selection Meeting is Also a War
In front of the gate, a line of fully armed soldiers stood, observing everyone around them with wary eyes.
Ayanokouji noticed that among the guards was a muscular man with green hair and a rough face. His eyes were firm and deep, and he looked like a weathered warrior.
It was easy to see from the style of his armor and his standing position that this man was the leader of these soldiers and was responsible for security within the palace, which was enough to show that this man held very high authority in the kingdom.
"Lady Emilia." The man bowed politely.
"Hello, Sir Marcos." Emilia greeted him in return.
The man named Marcos Gildark shifted his gaze to Ayanokouji and Beatrice. These two seemed unfamiliar to him, but he seemed to recall something, so he asked, "Excuse me... Could you be Lord Ayanokouji?"
"Yes." Ayanokouji nodded.
"I heard about your name not long ago." Marcos nodded. As the Commander of the Royal Guard, he had heard about him from Felix recently. "I heard you took down the Sin Archbishop of Sloth. That is quite an achievement."
"It was all possible because of Emilia's wise orders and excellent strategy." Ayanokouji said calmly.
He did not take credit for himself but gave it all to Emilia.
However, despite what he said, Marcos knew that with Emilia's abilities, it was impossible to eliminate the Sin Archbishop of Sloth, and Roswaal was someone who didn't care about anything, so the person who played a role in this must be Ayanokouji. After hearing his speech, Marcos regarded him as a humble person.
But Marcos still had doubts in his heart: Who was Beatrice?
In his eyes, Beatrice was just a child about twelve or thirteen years old, and he did not understand why she was with Emilia and Ayanokouji one after another.
"Is this person also participating in the meeting?" Marcos asked hesitantly.
"Yes." Emilia nodded.
"What do you mean? Are you treating me like a child?" Beatrice heard Marcos's words, her eyebrows furrowed, and she was a little impatient.
"I truly apologize." Marcos said while bowing to everyone. "Most people have already arrived, so you can move to the hall and wait a moment."
The golden dragon-patterned door slowly opened, and the palace's conference room appeared before everyone.
As Ayanokouji and the others entered the conference room, all eyes turned to them.
"That's the Half-Elf, how unfortunate..."
"Who's that person next to her? Where's that strange Roswaal? Why is there a child next to her? Does she think the palace is a kindergarten?"
"Hey... Is that man Ayanokouji Kiyotaka? He's still so young? Who is this man?"
Everyone spoke in low voices. Only because they were in the palace did they restrain themselves a bit. The voices weren't very loud, but Emilia and Ayanokouji could vaguely hear some things about themselves.
When Felix returned to the royal capital some time ago, he spread the news about Emilia and Ayanokouji defeating the Sin Archbishop of Sloth. Now everyone in the royal palace had essentially heard about it.
However, since information transmission was relatively slow in this era without the internet, many people present had only heard Ayanokouji's name recently, and many of those people had been visited by Emilia yesterday.
"Damn, is that Ayanokouji? He and the Half-Elf came to my house yesterday."
"Me too."
"This person can eliminate the Witch Cult. I'm afraid he's not an ordinary character. We need to investigate his true identity."
The nobles approached Ayanokouji one by one and started chatting with him. They seemed to have lost their arrogance from yesterday. After all, he was a ruthless character in their eyes who could take down the infamous Sin Archbishop of Sloth.
These cunning people wanted to pretend to have a good relationship, gather information from him, and explore his true beliefs. However, Ayanokouji's words and expressions were perfect, and they couldn't get any information, their acting skills being very poor.
During the conversation, Ayanokouji also quietly observed these people and gathered information from them.
Beatrice, surrounded by these people, naturally felt a little impatient. If Ayanokouji weren't present and she didn't pay more attention to public etiquette, she might have thrown all these people out.
Fortunately, there were people in the palace without such petty thoughts.
"Lady Emilia, Sir Ayanokouji." Julius approached them and bowed politely.
Ayanokouji glanced around and realized that Julius had just been standing next to a petite girl.
She had lavender hair and wore a luxurious white dress that looked expensive at first glance.
After meeting Julius yesterday, Emilia had informed him that Julius was a knight of Anastasia, one of the throne candidates. Ayanokouji had investigated information about the latter's free trade city "Kararagi." and because of her business talent, she had become the president of a large chamber of commerce in "Kararagi."
'She is at a disadvantage in terms of status, but she has outstanding business acumen. If she ascends to the throne, the kingdom's increasingly depressed economy will surely improve,' Ayanokouji thought.
His eyes turned to Julius, and he suspected he had joined the opposing camp for the same reason.
However, according to the information he had obtained, although Anastasia had extraordinary business talent, it was evident that she was very greedy and always wanted to gain more. Her aggressiveness and competitiveness could also lead her to make irrational choices.
Greed alone is not enough, but a snake swallowing an elephant.
"We meet again, Julius." Ayanokouji's expression didn't change, and he greeted the other party politely.
"Who is this?"
Julius's eyes fell on Beatrice, and he asked curiously. He didn't understand why this little girl had come here with Ayanokouji and Emilia.
"This is my friend Betty." Ayanokouji quickly explained, and Julius saluted her very politely.
Although Beatrice was a little dissatisfied with being treated as a child, considering Ayanokouji was present, she restrained her inner thoughts of casting magic to blow everyone away.
"Long time no see, Ayanokouji, nya! And Lady Emilia, nya!"
A very cute voice came from a distance, and Ayanokouji turned to look. Today, Felix wasn't wearing a skirt but the white uniform of the Knights, which was somewhat incongruent with his playful attitude.
Next to Felix, he saw a heroic-looking woman in a military uniform. He hardly needed to think about it and knew that the person was Crusch, the one with the best grasp of the situation among all the throne candidates.
"Are you Ayanokouji Kiyotakaouji?"
Another gentle voice sounded. Ayanokouji turned around. It was a tall and straight man, his hair half red like fire, but his eyes were the opposite—a blue color. His face was smooth, and his actions and gestures made people feel very polite.
"Reinhard, long time no see!"
Seeing the other party's arrival, Emilia smiled and greeted him.
As for Ayanokouji, he directed his gaze at Reinhard and observed him carefully.
Emilia claimed that Reinhard's strength was the best in this world and that he had a very noble character. In this throne election, he did not choose to side with anyone. If all this were true, then he should consider drawing Reinhard to his camp.
If that didn't work, he needed to ensure that he wouldn't be a threat to him. Otherwise, Ayanokouji would consider killing Reinhard.
No matter how strong you are, as long as you can't escape the category of being human, you have weaknesses. Even if your physique reaches an invincible level, Ayanokouji can also use the psychology of others to attack their weaknesses.
The kinder the person, the easier they are to capture.
"I heard from Julius about what happened to you before. Did you face a double attack by the Bowel Hunter and the Witch Cult? I'm glad you both are safe." Reinhard said with concern.
"Thanks to Ayanokouji's help, we managed to survive one crisis after another." Emilia quickly explained.
"I only did what I should have done. In fact, it was all thanks to Emilia." Ayanokouji said slowly.
"It seems you are an extraordinary and humble person, Ayanokouji." Reinhard said with a smile.
Ayanokouji nodded slightly, looking around at the surrounding reactions. From the reactions of the nearby nobles, he could see their supporters, but it seemed Priscilla hadn't arrived yet.
The door outside slowly opened, and Priscilla, Aldebaran, and Marcos walked into the hall together.
"Making ordinary people wait is also a benefit."
Priscilla's face was filled with an arrogant smile, and she squinted at everyone, as if everyone around her were merely her servants.
Such an answer made the attending nobles somewhat uncomfortable, but the Barielle family that Priscilla inherited had a very high status in the kingdom; apart from the royal family, they were second only to the Crusch family's Karsten level compared to other nobles.
'Indeed, she just inherited her husband's estate, as if everything were hers.'
The nobles complained in their hearts, but they could only hide it within and couldn't reveal it.
However, listening to Priscilla's words, Ayanokouji's heart was completely undisturbed. He even thought it would be nice if there were more people like Priscilla in the kingdom, so he could always be the 'ordinary person' and be overlooked.
But now he needed to demonstrate his strength properly. This meeting was akin to an arms race. Each faction had to showcase its own strength.
"Everyone from the Council of Wise will enter!"
As the loud voice was heard, he turned to look.
Several old men in colorful robes slowly entered through the door and sat right in front of the rows of seats in the hall, appearing to hold very high status.
Seeing the three other throne candidates already standing in the middle of the hall, Ayanokouji instructed Emilia to follow them, while he took Beatrice's hand and headed towards Julius on the other side.
As Ayanokouji took her hand, Beatrice's face turned slightly red, but it was nothing. On the contrary, she accepted the gesture. However, the reason he did this was merely to prevent her from doing something inappropriate.
Marcos walked toward the crowd, lifted his head, and said in a very loud and strong voice, "Then, allow me, Marcos Gildark, Leader of the Royal Guards, to lead the discussion! What happened is that about half a year ago, the royal family led by the late king passed away one by one…"
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